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INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 

DELIVERED BEFORE 

THE 

NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

EVTHE 

J 
■" HONOURABLE GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, 

(president,) 
4th SEPTEMBER, 1816; 

THE 206th ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

DISCOVERY OF NEW-YORK, 

BY HUDSOjY, 



NEW-YORK: 
Printed and Published by T. Si W. Mercein. 

181G. 






<g\(c 



NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Resolved, Thai the thanks of this Society be presented to 
the Honourable Gouverneur Morris, for the Inaugural 
Discourse, delivered by him this day ; and that Doctor David 
HosACK, Samuel Boyd, Esq. and Mr. John Pintard, be a 
Committee, to communicate this Resolution, and to request a 
copy of the Address for publication. 

Extract from the Minutes. 

JOHN PINTARD, 

Recording Secretary, 
September 4th, 1816. 



DISTRICT OF NEW- YORK, ss. 

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the nineteenth day of September, in the toi- 
tietii year of the Independence of the United Slates of America, T. &, W. Mer- 
CEIN, of the said district, have deposited in this olfice the title of a book, the 
right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: 

" An Inaugural Discourse, delivered before the New-York Hisioiical Society, 
" by the Honourable Gouverneur Morris, President, 4th September, 1816; the 
"206th Anniversary of the Discovery of New-York, by Hudson. 

In conformitv to the act of Congress of the United Slates, entitled " An act 
" for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, 
" and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times 
" therein mentioned ;" and also to an act, entitled " An act supplenjentary to 
" an act, entitled an act for tiie encouragement of learning, by securing the 
" copies of maps, <;harts, and books, to the authors and proprielors of such 
" copies, during llie times therein mentioned, and e^itending the benefits 
" thereof to the aits of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other 
" prints. " 

T HERON RUDD, 
Cleik of tlie District of New-York. 



DISCOURSE, &c. 



Gentlemen, 

The place your partial kindness has called me to 
occupy seems to require, and I hope, therefore, will 
excuse an attempt to point out some benefits which 
may be derived from this Institution. Something more 
to repay the munificence of our State Legislature 
than the grateful sentiment which it has inspired. 

Let me, however, before I enter on the subject, 
express our thanks to the honourable Corporation of 
NewTork for the convenience we derive from their 
goodness. The intelligent liberality which devoted 
a spacious building to Science and the Arts, not only 
reflects .onour on them, but sheds lustre on this 
great commercial emporium of the United States. 
Let the sordid collect and the riotous squander 
hoards of useless or pernicious treasure; be It 
yours, municipal fathers, to expend the fruit of honest 
industry on objects which embellish your city, and 
spread the influence of learning, genius, and taste 
over the hearts and minds of its numerous inhabi- 
tants. Your conduct has proved your conviction, 
that, in order to promote virtue and multiply the 



souices or' social bliss, wise magistrates will direct 
the people to laudable pursuits, and impressing on 
them a just contempt for sensual gratification, raise 
and adorn the moral dignity of man. 

We live in a period so enlightened, that to dis- 
})laj the use of History would be superfluous labour. 
It would be the mere repetition of what has already 
been expressed, by eminent authors, on various oc- 
casions. They have told us that History is the science 
of human nature; philosophy teaching by example; 
the school of princes. 

Dazzled by the splendour of such brilliant eulogy, 
the mind's eye is bereft of distinct vision. But 
reason, pausing and collecting her powers, raises 
a great preliminary question: What is History .'^ 
Is it the eloquence of Livy, the shrewdness of 
Tacitus, or the profound sense of Polybius? 

Not only those who have participated in the con- 
duct of national affairs, but those also, whose atten- 
tion has been engrossed by personal concerns, can- 
not have failed to observe, that facts, as well as mo- 
tives, are frequently misrepresented. That events 
are attributed to causes which never existed, while 
the real causes remain concealed. Presumptuous 
writers affecting knowledge they do not possess, un- 
dertake to instruct mankind by specious stories 
founded on idle rumour and vague conjecture. Those 
Avho are well informed smile at the folly. Great 



minds disdain to tell their own good deeds: it oeenis, 
moreover, to those who have managed public busi- 
ness, almost impossible that the tittle tattle of igno- 
rance should meet with belief. Nevertheless, such 
writings, though sheltered bj contempt, from con- 
temporaneous contradiction, are raked out, in a suc- 
ceeding age, from the ashes of oblivion, and relied 
on as authority. History, compiled from such ma- 
terials, can hardly teach us the science of human 
nature. It is, at best, an entertaining novel with 
the ornament of real names. Philosophy, indeed, 
at a later day, may bring her balance of probability, 
put the evidence of opposed facts in different scales, 
and deduce fair-seemino; conclusions from an as- 
sumed principle that man is a rational creature. But 
is that assumption just ? or, rather, does not History 
show, and experience prove, that he is swayed from 
the course which reason indicates, by passion, by 
indolence, and even by caprice ? When the founda- 
tion is false, the superstructure must fall. Such 
writings, therefore, however illumined by the rays 
of genius, or adorned by the charms of style, instead 
of showing man a just image of what he is, will fre 
quently exhibit the delusive semblance of what he 
is not. 

When we consider History, in the second point 
of view, as teaching morality by example, it seems 
evident that examples, if not drawn from real life, 



instead of informing, may mislead the mind, and in- 
stead of purifying, corrupt the heart. Neither is 
it certain that wholesome nourishment will always 
be extracted even from truth. Like other food, it may 
be so mixed and manipulated as to nauseate, or so 
seasoned as to give false appetite, stimulate morbid 
sensibility, and excite spasmodic action. A facetious 
writer who, in a rapid view of centuries, ridicules 
the misery of injured virtue, displays the glory of 
successful vice, laughs at the restraint of moral 
principle, and chuckles at the commission of crimes, 
may (if he please) call his work philosophy teaching 
by example ; but example so selected and genius so 
employed, are more likely to accomplish a scoundrel 
than to form an useful member of society. 

Again, if History be taken as the school in which 
statesmen are to be taught, there can be little hope 
that politics — that sublime science to make a na- 
tion great and happy — will be acquired by reading 
the relation of mutilated events, attributed to false 
causes. Such compilations tend to inculcate erro- 
neous notions ; and these, where the fate of millions 
is concerned, can never be indiiferent. If measures 
pregnant with misery are considered as sources of 
prosperity, the best intentions may produce the 

worst effects. 

Mature reflection, therefore, w'lil diminish our 
surprise that many, skilled in History, are ignorant 



of the world. Long is the list of learned men who 
know not how to manage the common concerns of 
h'fe, and not a few are rendered, by the violence 
of untamed passion, incapable of controling them- 
selves, much less of governing their fellow-creatures. 
Perhaps it is not rash to suppose that more accu- 
rate, more extensive, more useful knowledge of our 
nature may be derived from the intuitive perception 
andpersonificating power of Shakespeare, than from 
the laborious research and acute discussion of Hume. 

Many important events are on record, and how- 
ever dark and doubtful the testimony of ancient 
chronicles, there exists a great nujiiber of authenti- 
cated facts. These, when collected, may be called 
the Skeleton of History. But how much must de- 
pend on judgment and skill in putting the scattered 
materials together: and, again, the solid bones 
duly placed and connected, those muscles must be 
added which give symmetry, strength, and grace. At 
last the goodly form, complete in all its fair propor- 
tion, when language spreads a finish over the pro- 
mcethian frame, how must its appearance be affected 
by the colouring it receives? The same event, 
treated by different historians, comes white from one 
hand, tinged with a rosy blush from another, and 
from another black. 

The reflection and experience of many years have 
led me to consider the holy writings, not only as 



most authentic and instructive in themselves, but as 
the clue to all other liistorj. They tell us what man 
is, and they, alone, tell us why he is what he is : a 
contradictory creature that, seeing and approving 
what is good, pursues and performs what is evil. 
x\ll of private and of public life is there displayed. 
Effects are traced, with unerring accuracy, each to 
the real cause. We see, in the beautiful story of 
Joseph, how envy, destroying the peace of fami- 
lies, leads to cruelty and to crime. How a dig- 
nified condition is degraded by lust. How the 
wrath of despised wantonness stimulates a woman 
to deadly revenge. How the heart-burnings in a 
shepherd's family drove a minister of state to the 
foot of Pharaoh's throne. And how, for purposes 
still more important, a shepherd-boy was enabled 
to govern a mighty kingdom. 

From the same pure Fountain of Wisdom we learn 
that vice destroys freedom ; that arbitrary power 
is founded on public immorality, and that misconduct 
in those who rule a republic, necessary consequence 
of general licentiousness, so disgusts and degrades 
the nation, that, dead to generous sentiment, they 
become willing slaves. We read that, in the latter 
days of Samuel, the judges '•'' turned aside after lucre, 
and took bribes^ and perverted judgment ^ A more 
miserable state of society can hardly be conceived. 
Then laws to protect the weak against the strong. 



the innocent against the wicked, become instruments 
of oppression and torture. Then order is lost, confu- 
sion rules, and, to borrow expressions from the 
favourite bard of nature, 

" Wrong becomes right, or rather, right and wrong, 
" Between whose endless jar justice resides, 
" Have lost their names ; and so has justice too." 

Reduced to this forlorn condition, the more se- 
date and respectable members of the communi- 
ty, seeing no security for property or for life, 
seek shelter under the wings of absolute power. 
" The elders said make ns a king to judge us like all 
the nations:'' Samuel, his aged bosom still warm 
with patriotic sentiment, endeavoured to preserve 
the old form of equal right. To this end, he assem- 
bled the people, and displayed a highly wrought, but 
faithful, picture of evils which would grow out of 
despotism. In vain. Men sore with present suifering 
have not temper to reflect on remote consequence. 
In the maddening moment, they are deaf even to the 
voice of a prophet. " The people said., we will have a 
king over us, that we may be like all the nations, 
that he may judge m, and go out before us, and 
fight our battles:'' Here is a profound lesson of 
political wisdom, given long before Aristotle's Ethics, 
very long before Machiavel's Discourses on the first 
Decade of Livy, and still longer before Montesquieu's 



10 

Spirit of Laws. When the last of these authors, in 
sprightly repetition of his predecessors, tells us 
that virtue is the principle of republics, he offers hu- 
man testimony to confirm divine authority. That 
form of government which God himself had establish- 
ed, that code of laws which God himself had pro- 
mulgated, those institutions which infinite wisdom 
had provided, in special relation to the climate, soil, 
and situation of the country, to the genius, temper, 
and character of the people, became intolerable 
from the prevalence of vice and impiety. It is a trite 
maxim, that man is governed by hope and fear. The 
desire of pleasure, wealth, and power, the appre- 
hension of poverty, pain, and death, prompt generous 
reward, speedy severe punishment, are the human 
means to invigorate duty, stimulate zeal, correct 
perversity, and restrain guilt. But experience teaches 
that profligates may gain all the enticements of life, 
and criminals escape punishment, by the perpetra- 
tion of new and more atrocious crimes. Something 
more, then, is required to encourage virtue, suppress 
vice, preserve public peace, and secure national in- 
dependence. There must be something more to 
hope than pleasure, wealth, and power. Something 
more to fear than poverty and pain. Something af- 
ter death more terrible than death. There must be 
religion. When that ligament is torn, society is 
disjointed, and its members perish. The nation is 



11 

exposed to foreign violence and domestic convul- 
sion. Vicious rulers, chosen by a vicious people, 
turn back the current of corruption to its source. 
Placed in a situation where they can exercise autho- 
rity for their own emolument, they betray their trust. 
They take bribes. They sell statutes and decrees. 
They sell honour and office. They sell their con- 
science. They sell their country. By this vile 
traffic, they become odious and contemptible. The 
people, compelled to gulp down the poison they had 
mingled, feel their vitals twinge, and in anguish ex- 
claim, Away ivith these pretended patriots. Begone, 
hypocrites. Begone. Let a single man he invested with 
executive and judicial authority. Master and owner 
of the state, he will, for his own sake, protect it 
against foreign foes, and provide for an impartial ad- 
ministration of justice; that his subjects, secured 
and enriched, may multiply and thus increase his 
wealth and power. In the simple language of Holy 
Writ they say, " He will judge us., and go out before us, 
and Jight our battles.'''' Two centuries have not yet 
passed away since Europe saw a similar effect from 
a similar cause. The Danes, writhing under op- 
pressions of their nobility, conferred absolute power 
on their king, by general suffrage. 

We find in Sacred History another important poli- 
tical lesson : that the possession of sovereign power 
corrupts the best heart. The second Jewish king^ 



12 

a man peculiarlj favoured by the King of kings, al- 
ter leading an exemplary private life, no sooner as- 
cends a throne, than, a prey to unbridled desire, he 
becomes first vicious, then criminal. If, as tlie ad- 
vocates of infidelity have gratuitously supposed, that 
book had been written by bigoted priests, they 
would have concealed the guilt of their pious pro- 
tector. They would have held him out, an impec- 
cant example, for admiration and imitation. They 
would have covered, with bright varnish, the hi- 
deous traits of adultery and assassination. But 
truth, telling what he was, gives a lesson awfully in- 
structive. It teaches the frailty of our nature, and 
the danger of trusting too much power even to the 
purest hands. 

Another sublime lesson follows, in the succeeding 
reign. The widest scope of genius, the completest 
acquirement of science, the maturest strength of in- 
tellect, are combined in one man ; and that man 
wears a crown. By his wisdom he accumulates the 
world's wealth in one of its narrowest districts. He 
rears a stupendous monument of pious magnificence. 
It is consecrated to the living God. And, then, the 
royal architect commits follies that would almost 
disgrace an idiot. In the prostration of manly 
strength, he seeks pleasures that elude his grasp ; 
leaving, in a bosom chilled by age, the dulness of 
satiety, and the loathings of disgust. Happy had 



13 

the wise man's weakness been restrained, even in 
that excess. But, alas ! his bright intellect is so ob- 
scured, by the apathy of exhausted desire, that he 
worships sticks and stones, in pitiful condescension 
to the consorts of his lust. If this part of the story 
were tested, by fashionable rules of evidence, we 
should perhaps be told that, as superlative wisdom 
cannot be combined with excessive weakness, the 
tale of his debauchery must be an interpolation, by 
some foe to his fame, or the account of his talents, 
an invention to gratify national pride. Thus Solo- 
mon's character might come, from the philosophic 
crucible, all gold or all dross. But experience 
avouches the historic truth. We have known, in 
English annals, a man whose capacious mind em- 
braced all science. With a rare power of intuition, 
he not only pointed out the means by which know- 
ledge might be enlarged, but seems to have per- 
ceived the remote bound to which it could extend. 
And yet that wonderful man sullied his soul, by ac- 
cepting a bribe. The character a great English 
poet gave to Chancellor Bacon, is not wholly inap- 
plicable to the Jewish king : " The greatest, wisest, 
meanest of mankind." 

But the most important of all lessons is, the denun- 
ciation of ruin to every state that rejects the precepts 
of religion. Those nations are doomed to death who 
bury, in the corruption of criminal desire, the awful 



14 

sense of an existing God, cast off the consoling hope 
of immortalitj, and seek refuge from despair in the 
dreariness of annihilation. Terrible, irrevocable 
doom ! loudly pronounced, frequently repeated, 
strongly exemplified in the sacred writings, and 
fully confirmed by the long record of time. It is the 
clue which leads thrjugh the intricacies of universal 
history. It is the principle of all sound political 
science. 

The lapse of ages, and the change of manners, of 
religion, of government, of customs, and of charac- 
ter, frequently render examples of one age and coun- 
try inapplicable to the circumstances of other coun- 
tries and of other times. The ferocity of barba- 
rians, and the perfidy of courtiers, become, indeed, 
more striking by satiric contrast; but rude hospi- 
tality cannot be made a model for polite conviviality; 
neither can the charms of refined conversation cor- 
rect, by example, the coarseness of rustic mirth. As 
little can the stern severity of Roman virtue, though 
it swell the youthful bosom with enthusiastic admira- 
tion, teach the conduct which befits a Christian peo- 
ple. Hearts chastened by the religion of love 
would recoil from the Brutus who beheads his son, 
and the Brutus who plants a dagger in the breast of 
his friend, but for the lavish encomium of orators, 
poets, and historians. Those celebrated names are 
embalmed by the incense of eighteen centuries, and 



15 

our sight grows dizzy as we snuff the deleterious 
fragrance of flowers strewed on their tombs by 
lengthened generations. But when the gloomy 
Philip consigns Don Carlos to an early grave; when 
the amorous Henry sends Biron to the scaifold, we 
cannot but pity such interesting victims, though their 
lives may have been justly forfeited to the law. 
Whence this difference of sentiment ? It may, per- 
haps, be found in that difference of manners which 
makes us view with horror the Roman practice of 
sending their superannuated slaves to perish on an 
island on the Tiber, and fills us with astonishment 
that the African Scipio should be celebrated for chas- 
tity, because he did not violate a distinguished fe- 
male prisoner. The laws and manners of every na- 
tion, taken in the mass, have, generally speaking, 
a due relation and proportion. They so influence 
and correct each other, that the business of life goes 
smoothly on. The social harmony is full. There 
is no jar. And, though some features may be too 
salient, there is no deformity. Yet particular insti- 
/ tutions may be selected, which, submitted to foreign 
judgment, will be pronounced monstrous or ridicu- 
lous. Travellers, who view what they see through 
the medium of preconceived notions, measure what 
th'^y meet with by the standard of early education, 
and weighing the conduct of others in the scale of 
their own opinion, find that, wherever they go, there 



16 

is much to blame and much to reform. But when 
strangers, bhnded by prejudice, are raised to power, 
they muhiplj proofs, already too numerous, that re- 
gulations uncongenial to national feeling are incon- 
venient, if not injurious, and that rash reformation 
leads to ruin. From the same cause it happens that 
institutions which have been fruitful of good, in one 
age or nation, may be as fruitful of evil in another 
nation, or another age. 

Every man, therefore, will find the history of his 
own country the most interesting and the most instruc- 
tive. Moreover, as the state of society is changed, 
by time and chance, the laws, too, must change. 
New disorders require new corrections, and when 
the reason of ancient ordinances no longer exists, 
they fall into oblivion. History and law, therefore, 
are sister sciences. They support and enlighten 
each other. But the history of one country can 
have little connection with the laws of another, and 
still less can the native code be modified be exotic 
manners. 

Permit me then, gentlemen, to offer my cordial con- 
gratulations to you, and, through you, to our fellow- 
citizens, that this Institution is rapidly collecting and 
accumulating materials for a history of our own 
country. Materials which, establishing facts by in- 
disputable authority, will enable the future historian 



17 

accurately to deduce effects from the true cause, 
correctly to portray characters taken from real hfe, 
and justly assign to each his actual agency. Let us, 
humble as we are, and humble we ought to be com- 
paring ourselves with the Eastern hemisphere, let 
us proudly aver, that if, in modern history, the 
period, when barbarous hordes broke the vast orb of 
Roman empire, be one great epoch, the discovery 
which immortalized Columbus, presents another not 
less worthy of attention. If that era, when Europe 
poured her crusading population on the southern 
shores of the Mediterranean Sea, mark the lowest 
depression of human character, its greatest elevation 
will be found in the present age. Our struggle, 
to defend and secure the rights of our fathers, 
tore away that veil which had long concealed 
the mysteries of government. Here, on this far 
western coast of the broad Atlantic Ocean ; here, 
by the feeble hand of infant unconnected colo- 
nies, was raised a beacon to rouse and to alarm 
a slumbering world. It awoke, and was convulsed. 
What tremendous scenes it has exhibited ! The 
history of our day is, indeed, a school for princes; 
and, therefore, the proper school for American ci- 
tizens. Exercising, by their delegates, the sovereign 
power, it is meet they know how to assert and how 
to preserve their freedom. Let them learn the mis- 
chief that follows in the train of folly. Let them 



18 

learii the misery that results from immorality. Let 
them learn the crush of impiety. Let them learn, 
also, for such we trust will be the final event, that 
when the altars of idolatrous lust had been overturn- 
ed, and those of Jehovah restored ; when nations 
severely scourged had sincerely repented, they were 
favoured with as much civil liberty, and as much 
social enjoyment, as consist with their absolute and 
relative condition. Permit me, also, to cherish a 
belief that the partial distress and general inconve- 
nience produced among us, by late events, will have a 
salutary influence on pubhc manners. War, fruitful 
as it is of misery and wo, is nevertheless medicinal to 
a nation infected by the breath of foreign pollution, 
engrossed by the pursuit of illicit gain, immersed in 
the iiith of immoral traffic, or unnerved by the ex- 
cess of selfish enjoyment. It draws more close 
the bond of national sentiment, corrects degrading- 
propensities, and invigorates the nobler feelings of 
our nature. 

I add, gentlemen, with the pleasure and the pride 
which swell your bosoms, that America has shown 
examples of heroic ardour not excelled by Rome, in 
her brightest day of glory, and blended with milder 
virtue than Romans ever knew. These exam- 
ples will be handed down, by your care, for the in- 
struction and imitation of our children's children ; 
make them acquainted with their fathers ; and 
grant, Oh God ! that a long and late posterity, en- 



19 

joying freedom in the bosom of peace, may look, 
with grateful exultation, at the day-dawn of our 
empire. 

I 
Gentlemen, 

By the occasion which called us together, we are 
reminded that Hudson discovered, in 1609, the river 
which bears his name. Imagine his amazement, had 
some prophetic spirit revealed that this island would, 
in two centuries from the first European settlement, 
embrace a population of twice fifty thousand souls. 

Europe witnessed, in eight years, four events 
which had great influence on the condition of man- 
kind. The race of English monarchs expired with 
Elizabeth in 1603. Henry the Fourth of France was 
assassinated in 1610. In the same year the Moors 
were expelled from Spain. And, in the next, Gus- 
tavus Adolphus became king of Sweden. These 
events excited, as they ought, much attention. But 
the discovery of Hudson's River, within the same pe- 
riod, was of such trivial estimation as to occupy no 
ipace in public annals. 

Oh man! how short thy sight. To pierce the 
cloud which overhangs futurity, how feeble. But 
why be surprised that European statesmen, two cen- 
turies ago, were indifferent to what passed on the 
savage coast^ of America ; when, at the same tiniCj 



I 



20 

the existence of Russia was unnoticed and almost un- 
known. 

Little more than a century has elapsed since the 
decisive victory of Pultowa introduced the empire 
of the Czars to the society of European nations ; an 
empire which stretched out from Germany to Kams- 
chatska, from the Black Sea to the. Frozen Ocean, 
contains a greater extent than was ever traversed by 
the Roman eagle in his boldest flight. That vast 
empire, so lately known, and so little understood, 
resisted, unshaken, the shock of embattled Europe, 
poured the rapid current of conquest back from the 
ruins of Moscow to the walls of Paris, and stands a 
proud arbiter of human destiny. 

A mission of no common sort was latelv about to 
proceed from the New World to the Old. From that 
which in 1600 was a dreary wilderness, to that 
which in 1700 Avas a cold morass. It was contem- 
plated that a vessel of novel invention, leaving this 
harbour, should display American genius and hardi- 
hood in the port of St. Petersburgh. If this expedi- 
tion be suspended or laid aside, it is not from any 
doubt as to its practicability. 

There are persons of some eminence, in Europe, 
who look contemptuously at our country, in the per- 
suasion that all creatures, not excepting man, dege- 
nerate here. They triumphantly call on us to ex- 
hibit a list of our scholars, poets, heroes, and states- 



21 

men. Be this the care of posterity. But admitting 
we had no proud names to show, is it reasonable to 
make such heavy demand, on so recent a people. 
Could the culture of science be expected from those 
who, in cultivating the earth, were obliged, while 
they held a plough in one hand, to grasp a sword in 
the other ? Let those who depreciate their brethren 
of the West, remember that our forests, though 
widely spread, gave no academic shade. 

In the century succeeding Hudson's voyage, the 
great poets of England flourished, while we were 
compelled to earn our daily bread by our daily 
labour. The ground, therefore, was occupied be- 
fore we had leisure to make our approach. The va- 
rious chords of our mother tongue have, long since, 
been touched to all their tones by minstrels, beneath 
whose master-hand it has resounded every sound, 
from the roar of thunder, rolling along the Vault 
of Heaven, to the " lascivious pleasings of a lute." 
British genius and taste have, already, given 
to all " the ideal forms that imagination can body 
forth," a "local habitation and a name." Nothing then 
remains, for the present age, but to repeat their just 
thoughts in their pure style. Those who, on either 
side of the Atlantic, are too proud to perform this 
plagiary task, must convey false thoughts, in the old 
classic diction, or clothe in frippery phrase the cor- 
rect conceptions of their predecessors. Poetry is the 



22 

splendid eifect of genius moulding into language a 
barbarous dialect. When the great bards have writ- 
ten, the language is formed ; and by those who suc- 
ceed it is disfigured. The reason is evident. New 
authors would write something new, when there is 
nothing new. All which they can do, therefore, is 
to fill new moulds with old metal, and exhibit novelty 
of expressions, since they cannot produce novelty 
of thought. But these novel expressions must vary 
from that elegance and force in which the power and 
harmony of language have been already displayed. 
Let us not, then, attempt to marshal, against each 
other, infernal and celestial spirits, to describe the 
various seasons, to condense divine and moral truth 
in mellifluent verse, or to imitate, in our native speech, 
the melody of ancient song. Other paths remain to 
be trodden, other fields to be cultivated, other regions 
to be explored. The fertile earth is not yet wholly 
peopled. The raging ocean is not yet quite subdued. 
If the learned leisure of European wealth can gain 
applause or emolument for meting out, by syllables 
reluctantly drawn together, unharmonious hexam- 
eters, far be it from us to rival the manufacture. Be 
it ours to boast that the first vessel successfully 
propelled by steam was launched on the bosom of 
Hudson's River. It was here that American genius 
seizing the arm of European science, bent to the pur- 



2^3 

pose of our favourite parent art the wildest and most 
devouring element. 

The patron — the inventor are no more. But the 
names of Livingston and of Fulton, dear to fame, 
shall be enofraven on a monument sacred to the bene- 
factors of mankind. There generations yet unborn 
shall read, 

Godfrey taught seamen to interrogate, 
With steady gaze, the' tempest-tost, the sun. 
And from his beam true oracle obtain. 
Franklin, dread thunder-bolts, with daring hand, 
Seized, and averted their destructive stroke 
From the protected dwellings of mankind. 
Fulton by flame compeli'd the angry sea, 
To vapour rarified, his bark to drive 
In triumph proud thro' the loud sounding surge, 

This invention is spreading fast in the civilized 
world; and though excluded as yet from Russia, will 
ere long, be extended to that vast empire. A bird 
hatched on the Hudson will soon people the floods of 
the vVolga, and cygnets descended from an Ameri- 
can swan glide along the surface of the Caspian Sea» 
Then the hoary genius of Asia, high throned on the 
peaks of Caucasus, his moist eye glistening while it 
glances over the ruins of Babylon, Persepolis, Jerusa- 
lem, and Palmyra, shall bow with grateful reverence 
to the inventive spirit of this western world. 

Hail Columbia ! child of science, parent of use- 
ful arts ; dear country, hail ! Be it thine to meliorate 



24 

the condition of man. Too many thrones have been 
reared by arms, cemented by blood, and reduced 
again to dust by the sanguinary conflict of arms. 
Let mankind enjoy at last the consolatory spectacle 
of thy throne, built by industry on the basis of peace 
and sheltered under the wings of justice. May it 
be secured by a pious obedience to that divine will, 
which prescribes the moral orbit of empire with the 
same precision that his wisdom and power have dis- 
played, in whirling millions of planets round millions 
of suns through the vastness of infinite space. 



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